Why people believe whatever they want to... unless...

One does not generally have the capacity to directly choose their beliefs. For example, I could likely not get myself to start believing in Dragons no matter how much I wished they were real or how much I wanted to believe in them.

Rather than directly choosing our beliefs, we may have the a
bility to manipulate them indirectly. In order to do that, we have to understand why people believe things:

The Four factors determining belief

1). The people they identify with as their “society” believes it.

2). The individuals they identify as authority figures believe it. 

3). They have examined evidence from a trusted source that supports the belief.

4). They have personal experience that supports the belief.

So if you want to start or stop believing something, try to manipulate these four factors. 

Sometimes people find themselves in a situation where one or more of the four factors influencing their beliefs do not align. When this occurs, they may experience cognitive dissonance.

To try and resolve this cognitive dissonance, people generally will try to align all four factors with each other. In order to do this they may do one or more of the following:

The 9 Tools to Change beliefs

1). Avoid associating with people who have different beliefs than the one they want to maintain.

2). Find and associate with people who believe the ideas that they want to maintain.

3). Avoid listening to authority figures who do not support the belief they want to maintain.

4). Locate and listen to authority figures who support the belief that they want to maintain.

5). Avoid or attempt to discredit evidence that supports the belief that they do not want to maintain.

6). Seek and attempt to find ways to increase trust in evidence that supports the belief they want.

7). Modify, discredit, or change focus on memories associated with the wanted belief.

8). Discredit their memories as unreliable, allowing them to discard any personal experiences that may support the belief they do not want.

9). Discredit their own mind/experiences/sanity, allowing them to discard or discredit any personal experiences that may support the belief they do not want.

Now the application in my life:

For the last several years, most of my friends have been atheists. My best friend and oldest brother became atheists. I wanted to test the bounds of my own beliefs. I watched a bunch of atheist youtube videos and read atheist books. I read books and websites that attempted to tear down or discredit belief in God and my religion. I even isolated myself from church and believing family for a month and spent hours during that time listening to the persuasive points of a trusted atheist friend as he attempted to persuade me of atheism. I tried to see if I had the capacity to "swallow" atheism, but... wasn't able to do it.

The main reason is:

Sometimes manipulating these 9 tools are easy to do, and sometimes it can be very hard. For people who lack factor four, changing your beliefs can be as simple as changing the books you read, altering Facebook feed, a few subscriptions on youtube or reddit, and hanging out with a new crowd that believes as you want to.

Of the four factors determining belief, "personal experience" often carries the most weight. This means that if a person has personal experience with something, the other three influencing factors of belief can seem meaningless. Especially if other people lack your personal experience.

The only real way to try and undermine this fourth factor of belief is to use tools 7-9 as listed above regarding memory and sanity.

If you have done a very good job keeping a journal, writing down events as they occurred it can be a real obstacle to using tools 7-8 (memory discrediting). I have stacks of journals where I wrote down my experiences as they happened.

Also if a person is very familiar with sanity and psychosis, this can make tool 9 (sanity discrediting) more difficult to use if they recognize that they do not meet criteria for psychosis... I am a psychiatrist...

So, now you know how to change your beliefs. Maybe you will be able to change them if you want to try using these tools...

I doubt you will ever be able to get yourself to believe in dragons unless you can find a society and authority figure that believes in them, or you google evidence for it (you can find anything on google).

But if you want to believe in God, let me know and I may be able to get you pointed in the direction of having your own personal experience if you are willing to do what it takes.

This experience carries more weight than what your society believes. It carries more weight than what authority figures might say. It carries more weight than what other people might present as evidence they have found. It is a personal experience. Fortunately, there is also plenty of evidence, other believers, and authority figures available to maintain the belief as well.